Show Appreciation Every Day – Service365 (Feb’23)

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The dictionary meaning of appreciation is “understanding and enjoyment of the value of something.”

Appreciation can reveal the world to us in a new light, igniting new perceptions. It can make us nicer, more trusting people. Showing appreciation enhances our social relationships and gratitude, the alleviator of all suffering.

Being appreciated can brighten someone’s day while lightening our day as well. It surely builds our understanding of shared humanity and interconnectedness with all things around us.

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This month, February’23, we will express appreciation every day. If you haven’t already kept a journal, now would be a good time to start. Journaling your experience every day will support your service commitment throughout the year.

Again, start small but practice every day. Express appreciation by saying “Thank You” meaningfully. Many of us already do this but “meaningfully” asks us to remind ourselves of the benefit we receive from the other’s action and show it with a smile, eye contact, a slight touch or whatever comes naturally.

While a Thank You is always great, you can go further and express your appreciation for something specific you receive from the other that held value for you. For example, “I appreciate how your managing the traffic makes it easy for me to navigate the road safely.” could be an appreciation note to a traffic policeman. Specific appreciation makes the receiver see themselves and what they do in a new light, increasing their self-worth and connection with their service.

Express appreciation, verbal or written or in action, in any way that feels true to you. Every night, make a journal entry on your service act of the day. Reflect on how the action felt, at the time and later, if anything surprised you, and what you learned from it.

Choose any act of appreciation to whomsoever or whatsoever you feel connected. But just so you don’t run out of ideas, here are 28 for this month. 🙂

1. Appreciate a family member.
2. Appreciate a friend.
3. Appreciate a relative.
4. Appreciate a colleague or someone you routinely spend time with.
5. Appreciate someone you see every day but have never spoken to.
6. Appreciate someone in the Service365 group.
7. Appreciate a teacher or anyone you learned from.
8. Appreciate your home helpers such as cooks, house cleaners, nannies, car cleaners, etc.
9. Appreciate the people who save us time and effort such as vendors and delivery persons who come to our doorstep.
10. Appreciate people who keep our home safe (guards, etc.).
11. Appreciate people who keep areas around us clean (street cleaners, apartment housekeeping, garbage collectors, etc.).
12. Appreciate people who serve us regularly (shopkeepers, newspaper bill collectors, electricity meter readers, etc.).
13. Appreciate people in public service (policemen, traffic policemen, bus drivers and conductors, etc.).
14. Appreciate a server or teller at a restaurant.
15. Appreciate a stray animal. Look at its wholeness.
16. Appreciate your sense of sight. (Optional: Blindfold yourself for some time and try to go about your day.)
17. Appreciate your sense of sound. (Optional: Block your ears and go about your day for some time.)
18. Appreciate your body. Sit in a quiet spot and focus on every part of your body and how it serves and supports you.
19. Appreciate yourself. Write your wins in the last 7 days.
20. Appreciate your culture and what it has to offer for the future of the world.
21. Appreciate plants. Spend time looking, feeling, smelling, touching, and just experiencing a flower, a patch of grass, a tree, a sapling, or anything that calls to you.
22. Appreciate silence. Sit in silence for 10-20 minutes and observe.
23. Appreciate what annoys you most. Journal about 5 lessons from it.
24. Appreciate air. Take deep and long breaths multiple times today and observe the effect. Be aware of the air around you. (Optional: Set a timer or alarm to do this 4-5 times in the day.)
25. Appreciate water. As you drink water, hold the glass, and connect more deeply with this limited life-giving resource. (Optional: Do this every time you consume water today.)
26. Appreciate food. As you eat your food, connect with the source, the hands and elements that worked to get the food from earth to plate. (Optional: Do this for every meal today.)
27. Appreciate space. Look up at the sky. (Optional: If possible, skip one meal and experience space within the body.)
28. Appreciate the sun. As you venture outside, connect with the sun, the warmth and light on your skin. Connect with this life-giving gift.

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Share your experiences, challenges, and reflections in the comments of this post and in the WhatsApp group when comments open. What changed in you because of these acts? What did you learn about yourself and the world? What will you continue to practise beyond this month?